Neo walked down the corridor following a Player who was wearing a set of silver armor with a claymore strapped to his back, and only the sound of their footsteps echoed in the silence of the corridor, along with his heartbeat that beat like a drum.
"Couldn't anyone spring for a conveyor belt? That bald man really put all the budget into his own gut, huh,"
Neo muttered, making the Player who walked ahead stare back at him with a complex look in his eyes.
After a few minutes of walking that seemed like an hour, Neo's eyes became blinded by the white light that illuminated the entire field.
His eyes widened from the sight; the Controlled Space was so large that it could fit ten competition-sized football fields, with enough space for the viewers to watch at the side.
Inside of it were placed thousands of giant cylinders at least three meters tall, just enough for those who would join the graduation to fit in it.
His eyes wandered around, staring at the thousands of corridors placed at the top of the Controlled Space with hundreds walking out of it, the same as him, who would have their birthday at the end of the day.
"Get down, I hope you survive," said the Player, looking down at the field without batting an eye.
Neo rolled his eyes and walked down the stairs toward where the giant cylinder was placed.
After another minute of walking, Neo was staring at the Giant Cylinder, his name attached at the top of it.
Beside him, another person was looking at his own cylinder too, and there were thousands of them.
He recognized some faces, while some were new.
'In the end, I only need to know those who will survive their Tutorial.'
Then Neo heard a cough, a familiar voice at that.
His eyes stared at the top, where thousands of viewers were watching them, as the large screen showed the face of the Dean. Neo smirked and was forced to listen to what the Bald man was saying.
"To the Graduating Class of Year 2135, May 17. Survive!"
With a Graduation that happened every day, that number became insignificant, and what mattered most was them successfully coming out of the tutorial while stopping the monsters that came from someone who failed it.
They all knew the drill: enter the Giant Cylinder and wait for the designated time to enter the Tutorial.
Neo stepped inside his cylinder and stared through the glass at the giant timer indicating 23:52, a few minutes more before his birthday.
He took a deep breath and counted with it, easing his mind and very being.
"I'd rather they sent me in without knowing, than anticipate what would happen next."
As the clock returned to 00:00, Neo's eyes turned white, blinding him with thousands of different colored lines streaking past him.
After a few seconds, he was standing on still water reflecting the blue sky and the white clouds, with millions and billions of white and hazy people without a distinction of them being human.
Neo raised his hands, only to see that his hands had no features, as if... every one of them had become a silhouette of what a man was supposed to be.
Then a static, mechanical voice echoed around them.
Every silhouette looked up, but the endless blue sky was empty.
[Welcome to Ludoverse]
[Please select your Tutorial.]
A simple holographic interface suspended before Neo's face; a hundred thousand pages were in it, all having the names of games that existed not only in his world, but also from other worlds.
'Good thing there's a search bar at the top of it.'
Neo raised his hands—or the silhouettes of them—and clicked the 'Search' button. With a resolve that tightened his non-existent stomach, he typed the name of the game his father had chosen.
'Craft and Conquer'
He didn't click the 'Enter' button yet, but decided to remember his dad's story from the start to finish.
The silhouettes of other Players were slowly becoming pillars of light, and one by one they were being sent to their designated tutorial.
After he was the only one left standing, he murmured something so soft that it sounded like a prayer or a mantra.
'Immediately bow down. Immediately bow down.'
Taking a deep breath, Neo checked the name of the game once again, and after he confirmed that it hadn't changed, he clicked 'Enter.'
From his feet, a bright white circle appeared, followed by a blinding light, pulling him upward in a way that defied gravity itself.
Neo watched the ground shrink—or rather, the surface shrink, for it wasn't Earth or any planet, but an endless plain of still water beneath a layer of clear cloud.
As his ascension stopped at what he believed was space, a crack thundered through the void, lightning snaking at its side... pushing Neo inside of it without warning.
He felt a nauseating lurch, a sensation of being folded and unfolded, and then—
Neo unconsciously blinked, and what he saw next was total chaos.
Without thinking, he immediately bowed down, and an arrow whizzed past his head, killing the man behind him.
"What the hell is this?!" Neo shouted, ducking his head as another arrow sliced the air where it had been.
Steel clashed, sending sparks flying. Arrows whizzed past his ears, daggers thudded into the ground, and people fell around him—all before he could even move.
As another man fell who stared into his eyes, the World stopped, pausing the chaos that seemed unstoppable from the start.
[Please state your In-Game Name.]
"What the—?" Neo muttered in surprise.
[Error! In-Game Name already taken. Please state another one.]
Neo closed his eyes, smiling as he remembered his father giving him a nickname when he was a child.
A memory so precious that it became his inspiration and aspiration.
'Hero, someone who will sacrifice himself for the sake of others...'
But not anymore.
"Just Me."